Easier to make if sony doesn't use the cell, but even still, all next gen games gunna much more expensive and "harder" to make due to making full use of more powerful hardware (smarter a.i., more detailed backgrounds, explosions, etc.

You clearly don't understand the statement from the makers of the unreal engine 4.

They state next gen devs cant keep hiring too much people to make 1 game anymore, they design the unreal engine to make it become easier for everyone to make games regardless of how technical a video game may seem.

Next gen engines will be all about making videos great, fast while remaining cheap for companies.

@helluvaguy: You don't really have an idea what you're talking about, do you? If the technologies in place are more refined next-gen, there is NO need for games to be more expensive to develop. Development rime will definitely be shorter next-gen. That automatically means games will be cheaper to develop. Most cost comes from paying people's salaries

@hellvaguy In all software development the only "real" costs other than licensing any APIs/ code -in games: licensing an engine- it is all these salaries. Games became really expensive to develop this gen. Reason that companies couldn't afford exclusives is that after investing money to people for the art, CGI, animation and game design, the least of all evil was left: code for console optimisation. The fact Sony used "Cell" didn't make it harder as you say, just developers as lazy people and their studios didn't want to invest time into learning a new API and hardware architecture for "low-level" performance tuning. With the new Gen, engines are already trying to be as optimised as possible for as many consoles/ platforms they can. The last bit in a game development, having all these people optimising it, will become shorter and based on Epic (makers of Unreal Engine), less people will be needed there. This gen will be all about: -Investing into CGI/ In-engine render scenes as they "sell", can be used for trailers, can be a "WoW!" factor. -Make it as easy to port games as possible. -Try to minimising the costs as Engines will be "tuned", time to develop will be shorter -maybe at the expense of context sometimes. -DLCs with season passes -they sell unfortunately- to milk a game. -Investing in existing IPs and maybe see a few new ones later on.

We will see time exclusive and exclusives again. I believe more exclusives from Sony than MS, as they got lots of Japanese and other USA/ Europe 3rd party studios "loyal" to their brand. Now for MS it will be a question how much it is willing to "spend"...

Doubt they will get third party time exclusive unless Microsoft wants to pay millions for it ..PS4 is easy to develop now...They going to make sure they will maximize their game profit..If you want exclusive games Sony PS4 is where its going to be at..

Floding with exclusives? Really? Sony has the most exclusives, but not flooded, and I doubt they will do much better cause they dont have the funds and in case you did not noticed 2012 they closed out 5 studios that I know off. All consoles have exclusives its a matter of likes, I like Nintendos the most for exclusives, followed by sony and MS exclusives Im not into it except Forza, but they have 4 new ips, so will see, I hpe nothing like kameo lol, althought MS is the system I use the most cause im always onlive.

@Foolsjoker - More so from Microsoft as that has been their track record this generation while supporting a few great exclusives in the form of GOW, HALO, Forza and Fable, sprinkled with some entertainingly exclusive Xbox Live Arcade titles. On the Sony front, expecting less full game exclusive is at this point impossible as Sony objectively has the lionshare of first party studios with more new IPs being introduced which will be greatly exploited in the upcoming generation of consoles.

Sony's strategy was always exclusives to sell the console. I don't think this will change. While I also think most will carry over, Sony will have some pressure to create some new ones again. KZ is endless...I guess. Another Uncharted maybe, but this is tied very much into the PS3. And most of those are in "season 3". I don't think it's too great to start a "season 4" on a brand new platform. You'd need something which "can only be made possible" by that new platform and be used to give it some identity. As much as Uncharted did with the PS3.

The only exclusives will be funded by the console makers them self. The days of 3rd party exclusives are over because of development costs

Nintendo and sony are in best positions because both have IPs and full owned studios. This is where I think MS failed this gen, they should have bought studios and grew their IPs for future. Same 2-3 games will get tiresome

All the money they paid to RS for GTA dlc and the money they are paying activision and Bethesda for limited timed exclusives dlc should have gem towards funding so,e 2nd party exclusive games

MS HAVE purchased studios though for next gen development. They own 21 first party studios. Compare that to the 12 that Sony own and it will be interesting to see just what unfolds in the next few months.

I have a feeling the blind ignorance on n4g will be in for a rude awakening

I don't think the "cost" are the main concern. New platforms will make it easy to port. Exclusives in that respect will always be "cheaper" to make because you don't need to worry (and maintain code) for another platform.

But! it's all about profit. Why would you limit your market if you can sell twice as much because it's on 2 or 3 consoles. The additional effort to release to those is not 2x or 3x the initial cost.

Sony going to pump out A LOT of exclusive games for the PS4..Just how they did it with the PS3 last gen..I doubt Microsoft will pay for time exclusive for third party games..If they do they are stupid when they can use it to build a new ip game..Sony is killing microsoft console with their first party exclusive games

Sony will kill in exclusives whether you like them or not. So will Nintendo for that matter. Xbox left us hardcore fans in the dust and forc fed shovelware and kinect titles. They lost my respect and wont be on my radar no matter what they offer. Unless its some monster hunter title lmao

what you mean it wasin't??? i have a ps3 cuz of that, and not an xbox!!! i love gears of war!!! but that alone was not gana keep me from keeping it to long...when Metal Gear Solid 4 came out, i went in and traded it in. i miss it and all, but years later more games came out and i have not looked back.

I agree but in terms of brand name games like GoW, UE, Halo, KillZone, Forza, fable, GT6 and GOW.

Will definitely be making there rounds next gen. Those games were the winning factor of this gen.

Take Gears and UE for instance. Those titles clearly made a name for themselves early on this gen for being brand new Ips.

MS and Sony know its a MUST they have to release that 1 new Ip that that is gonna immediately resonate with the fans and become a brand name. The Hardcore HAS to come first in the beginning of consoles stardom.

The games must be their number 1 factor. History repeats itself with every new console.

people are worried about MS not having any new hardcore games at launch and after launch. But even with the rumored Kinect 2.0 I can assure you MS WILL cater to the hardcore. Kinect as another means of "gaming" has failed. Better with Kinect should be the main factor if they must use Kinect for games again.

@dbjj your right though, it means nothing in the long run just variety at that point.

People that believe exclusives have made a difference are just in denial. They clearly haven't. The PS3 would have outsold the 360 by tens of thousands of units if that was the case. I agree that exclusives will only exist for a handful of reasons. One is that the developer will be paid. The developer is a first party studio. Or the developer is targeting a very specific audience(like Japan, no need for Xbox version).

The only thing that may change that is if one console is a leap above the other.

Exclusive games does matter..The reason why the 360 sold so many console is because america is stupid enough to purchase another one when when it died on them..The 360 was playing catch up with the PS3 hardware too..anyone remember hdmi in the new xbox360? Also microsoft got a 1 year head start over Sony..I think last gen people were stupid to buy a 360 ..They spend a lot of money on it especially with all the add ons and xbox live crap

Well when Microsoft went casual with the XBOX360 i sold it and got myself a PS3. So in my case i bought a PS3 because of the games that i was interested in and most of those games are exclusives on Sonys platform.

Unlike most people in N4G, brand name doesnt really mean anything to me. What is most important to me are what those brands can offer me not the name which has no value in my opinion.

Lol, what? At the start of this gen I was an Xbox and Sony fan split right down the middle. Now, I am so far in Sony's camp I can't even see the fence anymore. Infamous, uncharted, metal gear, little big planet, god of war and the new beyond the last guardian....lol this is why I game. AAA games that suck hundreds of hours out of my life.

I don't foresee a significantly noticeable difference. Sony has a strong first party line-up that I don't think is quite ready to jump ship. Yes, we'll see Microsoft pay for more timed exclusives to try to bring fans to their side, but Sony will get most of those eventually anyway.

Sony's exclusive franchises are stronger and in larger supply than Micros'.

It truly depends on the genres in question. The 360 will never produce an exclusive hack n slash on the same level of quality as God of War and the PS3 will never produce an exclusive online shooter as deep as Halo.

You lost me a "as deep as halo". Maybe that were true back in Halo2 but that isn't the case anymore. I own Halo 4, and all it reminds me of is COD in a Halo Universe. There are alot of people rather disappointed with it, including myself. Most people who bought Halo 4 (day one) either stop playing, or traded it in towards Black Ops 2.

What do you mean by deep? I'd say Killzone 2 is definitely one of deepest online shooters out there. If you are talking about Halo as a franchise as a whole vs any other exclusive online shooter franchise then I'll give you that. KZ1 and especially KZ3 are terrible to mediocre shooters at best (Remember we talking strictly online here), but KZ2 is definitely one of the better, deep and unique online experiences to come out this gen.

Sony made sure they provide something new, fresh, varied, different, and interesting to the gaming community every generation while keeping the old ones getting better.

Its like plating new seeds along with old ones to produce new crops of food to eat.

Sony PlayStation games and hardware grows with the gamer as they also grow and age. Experimenting is their game: Uncharted, LBP, Heavy Rain, Resistance, Warhawk, Flower, Journey, DC Universe Online, Gravity Rush, The Last of Us, Beyond, Puppeteer, Rain, etc.

They look at the future while their competition only look behind (Nintendo) and the present(M$).

Fewer exclusives. If both consoles really are using x86 architecture, you're going to see a lot more on PC.

See how easy it was to port 360 games to PC, it'll be even easier for both consoles next time round. The only exclusives you'll get are from first party studios - the old "we're too small a studio for multiplatform development" line will never be heard again.

Same as always, each console maker will release a handful of superstar AAA titles, your Mario's, Zelda's, Uncharted, Gran Turismo, Halo, Gears Of War's of the world. Then there will be the middle of the pack exclusives and then the niche titles that go largely unnoticed and unbought.

Probably see even more timed DLC because both Sony and Microsoft will want to get people to buy 3rd party games on their console, if the Call Of Duty maps and things like the Skyrim DLC have proven anything, it's that people will buy a game on a particular console if that console gets content first. Now that isn't for every game, but huge games like Elder Scrolls and Call Of Duty tend to do that.

What if Naughty Dog creates a new IP or Guerilla Games makes a new Shooter, Sony Santa Monica something else than God of War and the LittleBigplanet "guys" a new outstanding IP and amazing niche titles made or published by Sony Japan?

I don't honestly see much of a difference in their strategy.Sony has turned around because of strong exclusives,and they'll continue with that.Microsoft will probably have few exclusives and deals with third-party companies like this generation,but we'll see even fewer third-party exclusives.Nintendo will keep on it's own path like,from the looks of it.

I think its more important for Microsoft because Sony and Nintendo have already have my money but Microsoft will have to show me something I really want. However Sony has got a lot of work to do to wow us after last of us, it looks like they've raised the bar for what consoles can do.

I personally think Nintendo will have the biggest portfolio of exclusive first party games and franchises. Don't count out Microsoft though, a lot of people are joking/ underestimating them saying all they're going to get are Kinect games.